There are an increasing number of endoscopic procedures being performed. Endoscopic equipment is often used to either navigate through the intestinal tract through a natural orifice or examine anatomy contained within a body cavity through tiny incisions in the wall of the cavity. These procedures are considered minimally invasive as they avoid the creation of a large incision to access the anatomy. One specific example is the use of a colonoscope to assess the colon for cancerous regions generally referred to as polyps. Such an application affords doctors the ability to potentially diagnose medical problems at early stages when they are generally more manageable.
Conventional colonoscopic procedures may be uncomfortable and may cause damage to the delicate tissues of the colon or even distention of the colon. During a typical procedure, the distal end of a colonoscope is inserted through the anus and forcibly pushed into the colon by a doctor controlling the proximal end of the colonoscope outside the body. Some colonoscopes are equipped with mechanisms to steer the distal end of the scope through the difficult turns of the organ. While this aids in navigating the distal end of the scope, the doctor still has only the proximal end to work with and essentially one direction along which to push. As such, the colonoscope can exert considerable pressure against the walls of the colon causing pain to the patient and potentially damaging the tissue. Still other scopes are passively navigated through the colon using the walls of the colon itself as a guide. While colonoscopy is but one example of an endoscopic procedure, other similar as well as dissimilar problems are often encountered in other endoscopic and minimally invasive surgical procedures. Other examples of endoscopic procedures include esophagogastroduodenoscopy, laparoscopy, thoracoscopy, and arthroscopy, to name a few.
An increasing demand exists to perform these and other surgical procedures with more minimally invasive techniques. Generally, so-called minimally invasive procedures require less recovery and/or rehabilitation, reduced scarring or other visual evidence, as well as reduced discomfort to the patient. By way of example, laparoscopic surgery refers to a number of minimally invasive surgical procedures performed in the abdominal and pelvic cavities. In such laparoscopic procedures, a laparoscope and surgical instruments are generally inserted through a minimum of three small incisions made in the abdominal wall. The location for these incisions is selected to achieve effective visualization of the surgical site with a laparoscopic camera and to permit instrument access to the surgical site. It is generally desirable to minimize the number of incisions, and to locate such incisions so as not to create visible scars. When possible, it is preferred to place an incision at the umbilicus, as the resulting scar is not obvious, and the surgical incision need not dissect abdominal muscle.
While existing endoscopic devices and guides for inserting and navigating surgical tools and instruments within the body have resulted in improved minimally invasive techniques, there still exists a demand for even more minimally invasive techniques that, for example, reduce the propensity for damage to delicate internal tissues and/or reduce discomfort to the patient.